Trying to post a comment on Molly McCoy's blog

I am a little bit of a nerd.

This summer we had to read a book called "The Road", by Cormac McCarthy. It was excellent, but that's not the point. Mrs. Weems decided to start up an online discussion group over the summer on the group, which got me excited for some reason. As soon as I got done reading the book I logged onto Yahoo! Groups and joined the group, ready to get to discussing. To my dismay, I had to wait for Mrs. Weems to verify me. So I waited and checked the site the next day. That lady promised she'd check every day in the summer, you see. BUT NO. In a ridiculous turn of events, I still wasn't verified. Pah. So I checked the next day and I was verified. Phew. She was probably just away on a day hike or something.

Anyways, I hastily posted my "first impression" of the novel (which ended up being about as long as this blog post). Then I realized I was supposed to put my name at the top of my post, so I deleted my post and tried again. After forgetting my name once more, I finally remembered it and got my post to post. But then it didn't come up! It took like thirty seconds for my post to come up. In that thirty seconds I was gearing up to type my thoughts all over again.

After my post was finally up (after an hour or so of work) I checked the messages to see what others of my classmates had posted. So far there had been a lot: right around zero is just an eyeballed estimate. I figured "dang, that makes me look good being first and everything." I checked the members and there were only three: zachals, candace.weems, and stephensnyderpooh, who had not yet posted. The rest of the summer I sporadically checked the page to see what was going on, and it never amounted to much.

ANYWAYS, all of this is to show you what a nerd I am, and to draw a parallel to something else I follow ravenously*: our journalism class' blogs. The weekend was the first time of the year we were assigned to write a blog, so I checked the site all weekend to see what my fellow staff members were posting (I posted mine like right after I got out of school on Friday). Unfortunately, all of theirs came up either after I went to bed Sunday night or Monday morning so I didn't see them until a few minutes ago. Let me just say: good stuff, friends. Victoria posted something about some garbage-sounding tv show, Adriana talked about being a senior, Morgan tried to woo the ladies, Colby recounted her incredibly exciting summer. Molly's was my favorite, though. She went into a stream-of-consciousness about eating barbeque and folding clothes and blogging and being crazy. One line stuck out to me, though. She said (while talking about looking for a restaurant) "I was in the mood for pizza, my sister, burgers, my mom, Chinese, and my dad, barbeque." I was like, whoa! You want to eat your sister and burgers and all that!? (See what I did there?) So I cleverly posted a comment.

Now, the moment this blog's been leading towards: my comment didn't show up. Pah. Ridiculous. What's the problem? I looked closely and noticed I needed to type in the colorful letters. It was like "tra vine" or something. So I typed 'em in. BUT NO, it didn't work. It was like "The characters do not match, try again". So I did, but then I got the same message again. On my third try I went very slowly and tried to match the letters exactly, but no such luck. After several more tries, I gave up.

Sometimes being a nerd just isn't worth it.

*Yes, I use this word literally.

Bring on the spooky

Earlier today I was trying to come up with a blog topic, but I was having trouble. In the midst of my considering different courses of action, my computer in the lab randomly went black. I pressed the monitor button trying to turn it back on but it wouldn't, so I moved up to a different computer, and wrote an entire post about how the movie Osmosis Jones is disgusting. I believed all was well.

Later, a few minutes ago, I happened to log on to my blog to poke around. Much to my confusion, the Osmosis post was nowhere to be found! In its place was the incredibly incomplete blog i tried to post from my first computer, with some new random comments thrown on at the end. When I checked my drafts to find that blog i did post, there was another blog all typed up, about how difficult it is to come up with topics to blog about! I definitely never typed it, as the grammar and spelling was sub-par.

Now, there are several possible explanations for this potentially paranormal activity. First, it's possible someone came into the lab after me and saw my blog opened (my first computer now working again), deciding to commit some good natured cyber-vandalism. I possibly would have done something similar in the same circumstances. But until somebody owns up to messing with it, I'm leaning more towards the second option: ghosts.

In the words of Mel Gibson, "I have long feared that my sins would return to visit me." Just like the patriot, maybe I'm finally being punished for the things I've done. I realize nothing drastic has happened yet, but weird things like this might just be the beginning. Who knows? Next, I might go to sleep and then wake up in a volcano the next morning. Or, I might be walking down the street and trip and fall into a sewer. A sewer of lava. Maybe a little raincloud will start following me everywhere i go, and not just ordinary rain. Lava rain.

Please leave me alone, spirits.

What is a blog?

What is a blog supposed to be? A diary? Should I just tell stories about my life and write about my day or my feelings for my friends and enemies? No, that can't be it. I don't think a blog really has to have a theme or any sort of guidelines. I could write about how much I hated a recent hit movie. And then fans of that movie could comment about how wrong I am, and then an intelligent argument on the merits and flaws of the movie could develop. Or if I'm feeling particularly happy, I could describe the beauty of the world. How every bird resting on a tree limb and every summer thunderstorm was meant to be. Color and shape and sound combine to create natural art, like the spray of a waterfall blasting the rocks below. And from there I could move onto the beauty of humanity. How every person driving down the highway has a different story to tell and a different obstacle to overcome ... their dreams and loves, as well as their opinions and complaints. And I could write about about how humans are a species destined to create. Whether it is creating a story in song form, or building a beautiful bridge, humans gain pleasure from making something new. Being in the image of God the creator, that must be where this desire comes from. I might throw in a political blog every now and then, and rudely bash your favorite party. Yes, since a blog can be about anything, and I am going to have many posts in the future, I felt it necessary to have some sort of rambling introduction. The meaningful, pointed blogs can come later.